April 22-23, 2013: Blog Forum in FlyerTalk, expiration & cancellation policies, bubble talk, Best Pics ever!

ByTravelBloggerBuzz Hours Categories TBB

Radhuset Metro Station, Stockholm, Sweden. Found here


ON MY MIND

I am on a mega race to catch up to…everything. I can’t believe I spent my morning doing this update so I can get the Google Reader feed count to a manageable number. Sometimes I feel like I should pull a Milevalue move on y’ all:-)

I missed driving my Mercedes. I just got a $345 refund for canceling my collission insurance for the 6 months I parked it, thanks for the tip Bikeguy!

How in the world am I supposed to find time to do my Norway trip report?

MILES/POINTS

Flyertalk has a new forum talking all about blogs and bloggers. Sadly, I have not had the time to even read one post in it, let alone post myself!

A comprehensive table of airline miles and hotel points expiration policies. From Dans Deals. I wish the Chase affiliate links were not there but…oh well.

Chris Elliott goes off again on loyalty programs and I agree on the main points! “The next bubble? Travel Loyalty Programs“. The article ends with this: “The lesson seems clear: Redeem your miles now, while they’re still worth something, because someday soon they may be worth next to nothing — if they aren’t already.”

An Overview of Award Ticket Cancellation Policies (Major Airlines) and here is the same info for the smaller airlines. From the Dealyst.

A profile of Randy Petersen in the Colorado Springs Business Journal.

American Airlines introduced the new Elite Rewards for its Elite members. Very nice. The last true enhancement before Parker settles in and starts running the place like he knows;-)

TRAVEL

United increased the change fees to $200 for Domestic and $300 for International tickets. Ludicrous! I hope it does not stick but, I am afraid, the Delta execs are already working on the BS news release trying to convince their customers that this will be an “enhancement”!

22 Unbelievable Places that are Hard to Believe Really Exist. From Bored Panda. WOW!!!

I can’t believe someone is going for the $1.5 million two year trip to visit every Unesco world heritage site in 150 countries! It is a Chinese student, nice to see daddy is paying for it!

Powerful pictures of Earth Being Destroyed. From Business Insider. Sometimes I wonder what we are doing to our planet…

The worst tourism promotions in history. From Grumpy Traveller. This was a fun read. A WTF were they thinking moment indeed!

You knew that was coming eventually…Dating at the airport. Gadling has the short scoop about it.

ODDZ & ENDZ

Abandoned Theaters Around the World.  From Business Insider.

The 51 Best Pictures of Kim Jong-Un Looking at Things. From Ranker. I missed my pal:-)

Ok, this is dead serious. Frontline did an awesome report on “The Retirement Gamble“. It is a MUST watch imho.

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27 Comments

  2. Gird your loins. Here comes MMS’ 47-part trip report on Hawaii with each post containing 13 Emily pics, 2 pics of grocery stores, 1.5 toilet pics, 2 pics of packets of crackers (that were eaten for lunch because of Emily’s allergy to fish), 1 pic of Diamond amenity at HR Maui, and 2 pics of VRs found in Maui CVS.

    1. It’s almost worse that they rave against affiliate links and then have deals with the same affiliate companies…but not for credit cards to stay above board.

    5. Do you really think First2Board wouldn’t pimp credit cards if they had the traffic to get the links?

      This is their HOT DEALS section. They claim to be curating very special deals, implying they are going out and negotiating special deals for you even (cough, the sort of special deals that they get through commission junction and similar affiliate companies, cough)

      And NO disclosure.

      This is WORSE than credit cards on SO MANY LEVELS.
      * Credit cards get miles for folks, often with no annual fee the first year (get something for readers, no cash out of pocket)
      * In contrast, these are like vacation packages and crap, things readers have to pay real money for out of pocket in order to line First2Board’s pockets
      * Several credit card bloggers disclose their financial relationships not just on their sites but in their posts. The First2Board announcement is made to sound like they’re doing their readers a big favor.

  5. Another (belated, obnoxious) shout out to that Saverocity post from yesterday.

    I had planned to stop by Lowe’s and buy Petsmart cards to maximize my UR bonuses from the quarter, but then remembered that gift cards can usually be bought more cheaply through cashback portals. UR points would have to be better than 3 cents each to match the gift card discount. (I could just buy them for 2.5 cents each, if I were an idiot.)

    Racking my brain for how to diversify back to a points-and-cash rewards combination has been distracting me from work all day. I’m aiming for churns for the points bonuses, and Priceline visa for the non-bonused spending.

    The point about international business flights costing $2,400 in opportunity costs should be the standard disclaimer in every “Look at me travel for FREE!” blogger post. Respek. (That being said, business TPAC was better than the economy TPAC we took a year before. We must be getting old.)

    And two thumbs up to the “what the h-ll are people doing sitting in a metal tube flying around the world simply for the joy of being on a metal tube and eating second-rate lounge food?” point. Right on, brother. The Bengali MG at milevalue is giving Lucky a run for his money in this category.

    So thanks again, Mark from Saverocity.

    harvson3

  7. George, I can’t tell you how much I enjoy your blog. It is the first thing I read every morning ( well, most mornings). The unrestrained hearty laugh is indescribable and I seem to have a little extra in my step as I had for my morning duties. Maybe the best analogy is finding the NYT crossword puzzle on your night stand when you wake up every morning. ( but not nearly as enjoyable )

    Keep it up George, and as I mentioned before, donations are no more than a request away.

    1. Posts like this sure keep this site going, thank you very much. I am making a difference in at least someone’s life!

      Thanks for the donation suggestion. I am trying to figure it all out. I take long time to figure out things…

  8. KLM Balloon Trip to Space

    I don’t understand it. I followed all the rules ( all 100x times ). I watched the videos, I consulted experts to calculate height and drift. How could I not win. Such a greater travesty has never happened

  10. Powerful pictures of Earth Being Destroyed. From Business Insider. Sometimes I wonder what we are doing to our planet…

    People who make ample use of hotels, planes, sports cars and encourage others to do the same are directly and indirectly to blame for a lot of this.

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